5 Jun 2014

79 early childhood complaints upheld

9:57 pm on 5 June 2014

There were 246 complaints about early childhood centres recorded last year.

A report published on Thursday says the Ministry of Education investigated 174 of the complaints and upheld 79 of them.

The complaints included allegations of abuse, neglect, poor behaviour and accident management, as well as over-charging of fees.

The ministry said where complaints are upheld, it monitors centres or requires them to develop action plans and send staff on training courses.

It said the number of complaints has remained about the same over the past four years, even though numbers of children enrolled in early childhood education has increased.